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Actually, I think the main reason that music went DRM free was to circumvent Apple's dominance. Since they had by far the most popular portable digital music platform, and wouldn't allow third party DRM on it, the music industry had a choice -- either deal with Apple, or forego DRM altogether.

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That's basically what happened. Apple wanted to go DRM-free (see Steve Job's Thoughts on Music letter) and did so as soon as they were able according to their contracts. But before they did, the publishers offered DRM-free music to Amazon first allowing them a head start on Apple.

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